


I Miss You

by UkieS



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Suicide, TWD AU, Violence, Walkers (Walking Dead), Zombie Apocalypse, did i need to make it this painful, no happy ending in sight, the answer is yes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 23:27:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17375207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UkieS/pseuds/UkieS
Summary: “Well, what would you do if I turned? Kiss me back to life?” Keith cocked his head, hoping Shiro would take his hypothetical as the joke it was meant to be and not something darker. Thankfully, he smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Keith's lips.“You know it. I will never give up on you.”TWD AU inspired byGuiyuy's art





	I Miss You

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [Guiyuy's](https://twitter.com/guiyuy) TWD Sheith AU, which can be found [here!](https://twitter.com/guiyuy/status/1082390239245611008)
> 
> I started this before the second part came out so the story is a little different, but you can find that [here](https://twitter.com/guiyuy/status/1083136814813143042) if you're interested!

 

“So, what do you think happens to people after they, y’know, turn?”

 

Keith watched the subtle changes in Shiro’s face as he thought. The gentle tilt of his head, the soft pout of his lips, even the shine in his eyes seemed to brighten with the question. It was almost comical the way his face scrunched up inquisitively. Yet Keith couldn’t look away. He’d previously seen this man fight and kill for the survival of himself and others, but something on his face was just so lastingly innocent. 

 

“I’d like to think,” Shiro looked back at Keith, intimately locking their eyes, “that deep down they’re still in there. That their conscious is never truly lost - until they’re killed at least.”

 

Keith felt a little morbid giggling at that, but it felt like such an odd belief to him. The Walkers weren’t alive. They didn’t think. To him they were just mindless animals, murderers with no concept of morals or any form of sentience. Killing them was practically doing them a service. After all, they’d never know. Better to put them out of their misery.

 

“I’m sure that makes you feel  _ so _ much better when you’re taking them down in waves.”

 

Keith pulled his knees closer to his chest as Shiro sighed, his childlike demeanor quickly deteriorating into something far more somber. He immediately felt guilty asking, the air around them felt so much stiffer as Shiro seemed to retreat inside himself. 

 

“No… not at all. It just - it makes the possibility of  _ becoming _ one of those things less scary.”

 

For a moment time seemed to stop for Keith. Even considering losing his soulmate was far too difficult to think about. He tried steering the conversation to something slightly different, for both his and Shiro's sake. 

 

“Well, what would you do if I turned? Kiss me back to life?” Keith cocked his head, hoping Shiro would take his hypothetical as the joke it was meant to be and not something darker. Thankfully, he smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Keith's lips. 

 

“You know it. I will never give up on you.”

 

-

 

Keith stared at the corpse thrashing against a tree, its guttural growling almost a mocking of human speech. He was warned already by the others in his group who discovered the sight before him, and yet he wasn’t fully prepared. He never would be. 

 

He couldn't bear to see Shiro like this, so bloodied and pale. So  _ dead _ .

 

His body stood as a warning now - a message from a rival group that plainly screamed  _ Don't fuck with us _ . He hadn't even intended to do anything threatening to them, but aimlessly wandering too close to an extremely territorial society is one way to get yourself killed. Keith wondered how much he'd suffered before they secured him to a tree just outside their base and slit his throat. He  winced at the bruises littering Shiro's face, the abrasions along his wrist and stomach where the ropes held him down. He knows from experience the Galra would never have cared for Shiro's own torment, tossing him around for a bit like a doll, as evidenced by the dirt and grass stains smearing his clothes.  They'd probably gotten off to torturing him, each scream another kick to the stomach, each beg for mercy another slash to his body. 

 

He couldn't stand there, couldn't watch as Shiro's now mindless corpse slid back and forth along his bindings, cutting deeper with each motion. Couldn't watch as his soulless eyes bore into Keith with a bottomless hunger. Yet Keith couldn't force himself to look away. 

 

He wasn't Shiro. Not anymore. 

 

In theory this should be easy. Keith's killed countless Walkers up until now, his hesitation shortening each time until it became nonexistent. He knew Shiro wouldn't want to live like this. He could end his suffering now, like he'd done to so many before. He'd be doing Shiro a favor. 

 

But he couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to their conversation just a few days prior. 

 

_ I'd like to think that deep down they're still in there.  _

 

Keith inhaled and pressed his gun to Shiro's forehead, his hand shaking uncontrollably. He knew he had to do it. One pull of the trigger, it'd be so easy. He stood there instead, unmoving, trying and failing to control his uneven breathing. 

 

“Shiro please,” he whispered, voice pitifully small as he failed to hold back a sob, “I know you're in there. You made a promise once. You told me you'd never give up on me!”

 

Keith paused, waiting for Shiro's soft voice to reassure him. To run his fingers through Keith's hair and tell him everything was ok. Instead, the animalistic gurgling was worse than silence. 

 

Keith's emotions rapidly transformed into anger. Not at Shiro - never at Shiro - but at the world for twisting and toying with him in the harshest way possible. For finally giving him something worth living for, something that made him happy to wake up in the morning. Seeing those steel gray eyes staring back at him made living in an unending nightmare almost worth it. 

 

It was here that he learned fate has a cruel way of working, forcing him to stare back into those eyes he loved so much, the warmness he was so used to replaced with a cold, hollow  murkiness. There was a part of him in the back of his mind that was glad his eyes were full of tears, vision too blurry to properly see what his lover’s been reduced to. 

 

He readjusted his grip on the gun, pressing it tightly against Shiro out of fear of dropping it. What was left of Shiro's right arm slipped from its bindings, attempting to grab Keith with its missing fingers. He couldn't take it anymore. Standing here watching this was tearing him apart. 

 

In between hiccups and harsh, violent sobs, he screamed. An “I love you!” escaped his lips, practically loud enough for any Walkers within 10 miles to hear. But he didn't care, he didn't have any reason to. 

 

In a surge of impulse he lowered his hand and rushed forward, embracing the sickly pale body in front of him. Almost instantaneously Shiro's teeth were sinking into the flesh connecting Keith's shoulder and neck. He knew he should regret it, throwing his life away just to feel Shiro one more time, but he didn't. At all. Shiro's skin was stiff and dry but still so very _ Shiro _ . And that was enough for him. Enough for him to ignore the pain of being hungrily torn open and the looming threat of what he had to do next. 

 

With his hesitation gone, he finally reached up, pressed the gun to Shiro's temple, and fired. 

 

The body instantly went limp in Keith's arms as he reached around to untie him from the tree. He lowered them both gently to the ground, refusing to let go of what was left of Shiro. Keith refused to drop him, even against the throbbing pain in his shoulder. He deserved at least that. Hell, he deserved so much better than this.

 

_ It should've been me, _ Keith thought, shaking and crying into Shiro's shoulder, his own blood and tears mixing with what was pouring out of Shiro's own wounds. He ran his fingers through Shiro's short hair, coating his already dirty hair with the fresh blood from the gunshot. 

 

Keith came to terms with what he'd have to do the second he hugged Shiro, but that didn't make actually doing it any easier.  _ A few more minutes _ , he'd convinced himself,  _ I have time. I just want to hold him first.  _

 

Keith thought back to the endless nights they spent together, laying awake to talk about who knows what. How he watched intently as Keith told him about his hometown, eyes wide at Keith's promise to take him. How many times Keith had fallen asleep against his shoulder, just to find out Shiro passed out as well. He always looked so peaceful when he was sleeping, the stress of fighting for their lives dissipating in his dreams. 

 

He wish Shiro looked just as peaceful now, but he simply wasn't that lucky. His face was contorted in pain, his mindless hunger clear on his face. Keith hiccuped and raised his hand to close Shiro's eyes, wiping the blood from his chin with his sleeve. He wished he could give him more. To at least give him a proper burial, but he simply didn't have the time anymore. 

 

Sliding them both against the tree, Keith wiped his eyes to properly look at Shiro a final time. He placed his cracked lips to Shiro's forehead. He gave him one final hug before raising the gun on himself. 

 

“I love you, so much” he whispered one last time before firing. 

 

From then on, their embracing bodies sat there, preserved out of respect to the couple. The tale of the tragic lovers was clear to anyone passing as both a message and a warning to their own mortality. No one was exempt from death, no matter how unfair its choices may be.

**Author's Note:**

> I hurt myself with this and if I hurt you too then my job is done
> 
> Check me out on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/xUkieS) and [Tumblr](https://xukies.tumblr.com/) ! Thank you for reading!


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